Managing aging workers: a mixed methods study on bundles of HR practices for aging workers

Abstract

Since abilities and motives change with age and common human resource (HR) practices might be less suitable for aging employees, scholars and practitioners are currently challenged to find new ways of managing aging workers and motivating them to continue working. Therefore, this mixed methods study builds on literature on lifespan development and literature on HR practices in proposing four new bundles of HR practices for aging workers: accommodative, maintenance, utilization and development HR bundles. Since we draw on separate bodies of literature to propose new constructs, we use a mixed methods design in order to triangulate our findings. The proposed HR bundles were explored with a qualitative interview study among HR managers, line managers and employees in the Dutch construction sector, and tested with a quantitative survey study among Dutch government workers. Both studies confirmed that HR practices for aging workers can be classified into accommodative, maintenance, utilization and development HR bundles of practices.

Keywords::

• aging workers
• (bundles of) HR practices
• mixed methods study

Notes

^1. The full case study protocol can be obtained from the first author.